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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Our Garden

When Jacob and I got married, we said "we sure don't want a garden, and definitely not animals!" I think we both had been gardened and animaled out growing up, and the first thing we were going to do with our newfound freedom was NOT garden.

Then we went grocery shopping. For real...like, with OUR money. Uh huh. It wasn't too long before we said "you know, we should really have a garden! Just a small one, but big enough to grow a few things." :) Now we also wish we had more room/land for a few chickens.

We have two 4x14 ft raised garden beds, that I section off into square foot sections when we plant in the spring. So not very big. One of the beds is half green beans and half tomatoes. I'm not doing very well growing tomatoes and I have a weird amount of tomatoes...not nearly enough to put up and way too many to just eat. My green beans are about played out...I've picked three or four times already and I just get enough for us to have for a meal. I'd like to plant more to can but we'll have to find somewhere to put them next year.

I picked everything yesterday. I am NOT doing very good at staying on top of this stuff. Apparently. See the okra? I have THREE okra "trees" and I picked 42 okra yesterday. I was kinda ignoring them because we're tired of fried okra and that's the only way we eat it. I threw out 24 that were too big, sent some to my in-laws and still have too many left for us. The jalapenos? We also have three jalapeño plants. Also been putting those off, simply because I don't know what to do with them! I still have canned jalapenos from last year and I'm the only one that eats those. We planted jalapenos because Jacob said he wanted to make poppers. That's a whole lot of poppers, honey. I need to do a little research and see if I can freeze them for poppers in December.

I love growing bell peppers. I cook with them fairly often and they get so expensive, especially colored ones. (Is that politically correct?) the colored ones are my favorite but I can't get them to grow very well. I grow green ones just fine but it seems like they always start to rot before the turn. The red ones in the picture are about like those mini sweet peppers you get at the store and I'm treating them like bells. My plants are loaded with green peppers but I'm giving them a little more time to see if they'll turn. I just slice and freeze them as I pick them and I think I already have a couple gallon bags full in the freezer.

Oh...and the thing on the far right in the picture is a bag of frozen chicken broth. I was cooking black beans yesterday.

So there's a bit about my tiny, over productive garden. Maybe one of the yeas I'll get good at it. You'd think I'd be too busy or something...

Do you "put up" tomatoes by pressure canning? My mother-in-law "open kettle" cans her tomatoes and that is the way I do my salsa. Because it is to much easier, I can small batches (about the amount you have pictured)when I have some that must be used. I have made salsa twice lately, getting only four pints each time, but with open kettle canning, it is easy enough to do just a few jars at a time.

I don't have a pressure canner yet but I have canned with a water bath canner..would that be open kettle? I canned salsa last year but we didn't care much for it...haven't found a recipe we really like yet, but I haven't made too many different ones. I like fresh salsa but that doesn't help much, because we can only eat so much at a time!

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What About Me?

I'm Kayla, and the handsome guy in my picture with me is my great and wonderful husband! (But you probably could've guessed due to the tux and wedding dress...) These days, I stay super busy taking care of housework, hubby, and three absolutely adorable kids who happen to be mine. Married in 2012, baby boy came June 2013 (9 months and 6 days after our wedding...,) baby girl arrived July 2014, and baby boy #2 joined us March 2016. Yes, my hands are full but I love my life and wouldn't change it for the world!